Perspectives
by Laura DeStefano | Mar 9, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
A basic aim of effective and efficient health care is ensuring the right match between the patient’s condition and the setting for the patient’s care. With that aim in mind, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently implemented the Surgical Complexity...
by Laura DeStefano | Feb 24, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
Amidst the politicized and polarized debate on health care policy, it is encouraging to know that the goal of this discussion remains unchanged; Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, and liberals all seem to agree that we should be working to create a high-value,...
by Laura DeStefano | Feb 10, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
Despite past efforts to improve patient safety—and there has been effort and activity aplenty—routine safety processes continue to fail routinely. Poor hand hygiene remains a major vector of health care-associated infection. Medication errors lead to adverse drug...
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 28, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
I am pleased to introduce Perspectives, a new category of written products from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Perspectives comprise two forms—commentaries and discussion papers—both of which offer observations and opinions of leading experts on developments in...
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 27, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
The challenging economics of health care require today’s innovators to demonstrate value against a number of criteria, including access to care, the current standard of care, and the economic capacity of payers. One way innovators have sought to address the paradox of...
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 27, 2012 | Discussion Paper, Perspectives
What Is a Health Literate Organization? This paper describes ten attributes of a health literate organization, that is, an organization that makes it easier for people to navigate, understand, and use information and services to take care of their health. (See Table...
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 27, 2012 | Discussion Paper, Perspectives
At a recent meeting for Institute of Medicine (IOM) staff, I delivered a version of my 2011 Frank A. Calderone Prize Lecture, which included reference to the seven deadly sins. As originally enunciated by Pope Gregory I in 590 A.D., the deadly sins are lust, sloth,...
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 27, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
As is the case every year, millions of Americans will contract influenza this flu season, and thousands will die. During the 2009–10 season alone, when H1N1 set off the world’s first flu pandemic in 40 years, more than an estimated 12,000 Americans lost their lives to...
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 27, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
We are spending 2.8 trillion dollars each year in the United States on health care—far more than any other country in the world. Interestingly, more than 75 percent of that sum is going toward chronic diseases. Chronic conditions can actually be prevented....
by Laura DeStefano | Jan 27, 2012 | Commentary, Perspectives
In 1965, when Medicare was enacted, spending for prescription drugs was less than $4 billion—so low that no one thought to include a drug benefit as part of Medicare. By 2003, the cost and importance of drug therapy was so high that Medicare Part D was enacted. Drug...
